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Nerd Block – September 2016

Nerd Block is a monthly pop culture subscription box service designed to appeal to geeks and gamers, and catering to a variety of interests with the Classic Block, Arcade Block, Horror Block, Sci-Fi Block and more. This is a review of September’s Classic Block.

Nerd BlockCost: $19.99 USD per month.Shipping Costs: $8.75 to Canada, $9.95 to the US and $12.95 worldwide.Mailed Out: within 5 business days of the 15th of each month.Payment Method: Credit Card and Paypal.**Note: subscriptions renew automatically for credit cards, but not for Paypal**

I received an email on September 20th letting me know my box was due to ship that week and it arrived on Monday 3rd October, a little battered but none the worse for wear.

First look inside…hmm, I have mixed feelings already.

OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS

Star Wars button set: if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you’ll know my feelings on buttons…if you’re new, these are the BANE OF MY LIFE. I have zero use for them and I find it so frustrating how prevalent they are in boxes! I would love these if they were magnets so I could display them on my fridge, but buttons are a filler item for me, and unfortunately I received them in THREE boxes in one week!

Ghostbusters screen cleaning cloth: this month, Nerd Block sent out phone cases – if you did not select your phone model or if your phone wasn’t listed as an available model, you received a replacement item. This screen cleaning cloth…

I guess this may be practical for some people? Honestly, I have never used a screen cleaning cloth in my entire life. I’m a bit disappointed in this replacement item – a phone case is pretty cool and practical, something you can use everyday and casually flash to display your nerd credentials. A cleaning cloth is just lame and doesn’t seem fair as an ‘equivalent’ item to me. 😦

Attack On Titan face mask: the packaging describes this as a scarf, but this in no way resembles a scarf. Sure, infinity scarves are designed to be ‘continuous’ instead of having two ends so that you can loop them stylishly around your neck, but THIS is a suffocatingly narrow tube of fabric that you would only wear for a last-minute Halloween outfit or in the event of an airborne virus.

Well, that is nightmare fuel, awesomeness! There are basically no circumstances under which this would ever adorn my face. D:

Fun With Kirk and Spock: A Parody ($14.49 AUD or approx $11.12 USD): this is the spoiler item that was revealed and tempted me into purchasing this box – it’s perfect for a Trekkie friend of mine with an infant. 😀 The illustrations are adorably absurd, I think she’ll love it!

The New Batman Adventures: Batgirl Action Figure ($18.90 USD or approx $24.64 AUD): subscribers received one of three possible figures from Batman: The Animated Series or The New Batman Adventures – The Joker, Penguin, or Batgirl. I received Batgirl along with accessories including a batarang, grapple gun, and four sets of interchangeable hands.

If you’re curious, you can view a video here that shows Batgirl out of her box in different poses and with her assorted accessories. I actually asked my friend Brad to list this item on ebay which is why I didn’t unbox her – he sold it in one day for $30 AUD, mwahaha.

Harry Potter t-shirt: my favorite character from this franchise is Severus Snape (I love him so much that I have a life-size cardboard stand of Snape, lol) so I was thrilled to see the t-shirt featured this lovely design! It’s really neat how they’ve incorporated his features into the lettering of his name along with his Patronus, the doe!

Closer look at the design. ❤

VERDICT

Quality of Curation: I think the badges, the cleaning cloth and the face mask were poor choices. One of these items would’ve been fine, but all three in one box was disappointing. Thankfully the book, the figure and the t-shirt were a lot more appealing and made up for it somewhat.

Worth It? I took a gamble on purchasing this box when there was a special one-off 40% discount, so it only cost me $35.22 AUD. I wasn’t in love with the contents, but at least I got most of that back from selling the Batgirl figure, so I’m not too upset.

The book and figure are a combined value of approx $30 USD or $39 AUD, and I’d estimate the badges, cleaning cloth, face mask and tee as an additional $30 – $40. So on an objective basis, you do get around double the value of what you paid. However, I wouldn‘t have paid for most of the items in this box if I had the choice. I won’t be subscribing to Nerd Block again as their item selection just isn’t for me, and with international shipping and the currency conversion, it’s just not worth the gamble.